Team Herald
PANJIM: Thousands of devotees will throng to Old Goa on December 4 (today) to celebrate the feast of St Francis Xavier.
The solemn high Mass will be at 10.30 am where Bishop Gerald Lobo of Udupi diocese will be the main celebrant. Besides Archbishop Patriarch Filipe Neri Ferrao, Bishop Alwyn Barreto of Sindhudurg and Bishop Alex Dias of Port Blair will be concelebrating this solemn Mass.
Masses on the feast day will be at 4 am, 5am, 6am, 7am, 8am, 9am, 10.30am, 12.30pm, 3pm (Spanish), 4pm, 5 pm and 6pm (English). The CCR-TV channel will be inaugurated by Archbishop Filip Neri Ferrao at the end of the solemn High Mass. It will serve to invigorate the love of Christ in the lives of thousands of viewers thorough a multitude of programs. Masses in the pandal on December 5 (Tuesday) will be at 6 am, 7.15am, 8.15am, and in the Basilica at 6pm. Followed by a Tiatr in the pandal “Hanv Porot Yetam” at 6.30 pm which is open for all.
In view of thousands of people thronging for the feast, the Church authorities had last month sought ‘strict security arrangements’ in and around the religious premise. The police department has heightened security on the Feast day with additional manpower drawn from the north district police stations besides Police Training Centre and other units, deputy superintendent of police Nelson Albuquerque told Herald.
The department has installed 10 Door Frame Metal Detectors at five entry points, in addition to six towers.
which will be manned by the police personnel round the clock. The officer revealed that entire activity around the area would be monitored by 27 CCTV cameras fixed at different locations. “Traffic police would be separately deployed to man the traffic,” Albuquerque added.
